About this opening
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation is an opening in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings,
classified under code E18. ECO group E (E00–E99)
covers Indian defences against 1.d4, covering the Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Indian, King's Indian and Catalan systems. This particular variation is reached
after 13 half-moves from the
starting position, with the move sequence 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3.
It belongs to the Queen's Indian Defense family.
Within that family this is a level-2 branch (the Classical Variation → Traditional Variation line). The immediate parent line is Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, transitioned via 7.Nc3.
The opening sequence in prose form: 1.d4 Nf6, 2.c4 e6, 3.Nf3 b6, 4.g3 Bb7, 5.Bg2 Be7, 6.O-O O-O. From this position 2 named continuations are recorded in the encyclopaedia, each leading to a distinct theoretical line.
Use the interactive board above to walk through the moves position-by-position. Click any move in the navigation to step backwards, or use the keyboard arrow keys. The list of recorded continuations sits directly below the board. For statistical data — how often master-level players have reached this position, White's win-rate, draw frequency, Black's score — see the panel in the right column.
Caissly's coverage of E18 extends through every named sub-variation in this line and across all four locales (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian). Where editorial commentary exists for a specific variation it appears as the page body; otherwise the page presents the structural data, board, and statistics as shown here.